The Morris Canal will be the guest of honor at Saturday's Canal Day Music & Craft Festival in Wharton’s Hugh Force Canal Park.

The festival, an annual tradition first established by the Wharton Rotary Club more than 40 years ago to promote the town, now aims to celebrate the Morris Canal and the legacy it left behind. The day will also serve as a fundraiser for some of the phases of revitalization projects at Hugh Force Park along the Morris Canal.

The festival, scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature a craft show and a wide variety of activities including historical re-enactments and a civil war encampment, said Canal Day Association and its President John Manna.

There will be gourmet food trucks, live entertainment from some of New Jersey’s top musical artists, fireworks, and more, Manna said. The Canal Day Association partnered with the Morris County Heritage Commission to host the Morris County history fair there as well.

A kayak ride at one of the previous Canal Day Music & Craft Festivals in Wharton’s Hugh Force Canal Park.(Photo11: Courtesy of Canal Day Association President John Manna)

The festival will feature free kayak rides and a narrated boat tour along the Morris Canal, Manna said. The tour will give visitors the chance to have a hands-on live experience on what it was like to travel on the canal while in operation. It will feature members of the Canal Society of New Jersey who will present an oral history, Manna said.

“My hope is for visitors to understand how the canal was utilized by traveling on a boat ride along the canal, enter the lock and be elevated 8 feet within the lock and continue into the canal basin,” he said. “It’s living history rather than just reading about history in a book. Learning through living history makes history interesting.”

Among Wharton’s long-term goals as a community is to brand itself as a popular educational tourist attraction by making the canal’s Lock 2 East in Wharton’s Hugh Force Canal Park fully functional and creating an outdoor transportation museum in the area to attract shoppers and diners, Manna said.

The group wants to revitalize the Main Street Historical District through history and tourism, Manna said.

A historic photo from the early 1900’s of the Morris Canal when it was in use.(Photo11: Courtesy of Canal Day Association President John Manna)

The Morris Canal, which connected Jersey City to Phillipsburg, was built between 1825 and 1831. It was considered a major technological innovation at the time because it was a climbing canal that could go up hills, and because it was the highest such canal in the world. When in use, it was a major boost to commercial development in Northern New Jersey that also played a major role in the industrial revolution as it transported coal and goods from the mines of Northeastern Pennsylvania to the urban markets of northeastern New Jersey and New York City and beyond.

As a result of innovations like the steam engine and railways, traffic along the canal gradually declined starting in the late 1800’s. In 1924, the canal was shut down, drained, and mostly destroyed, Manna said. Some pieces of the canal, however, were preserved, and the Lock 2 East was actually one of the most intact structures along the canal, he said.

A guided boat tour at one of the previous Canal Day Music & Craft Festivals in Wharton’s Hugh Force Canal Park.(Photo11: Courtesy of Canal Day Association President John Manna)

Manna said the revitalization efforts at the canal’s Lock 2 East are related to a larger project by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority called the Morris Canal Greenway, which is a proposed trail accompanied by a series of green open spaces that will follow the canal’s former route.

“I envision Lock 2 as one of the many jewels on the developing Morris Canal Greenway,” Manna said.

Admission is free with off street parking at $5.

Canal Day festivities help foster a sense of local pride and honor the historical legacy of the Morris Canal, which formed a crucial part in the area’s past, said Wharton Mayor William Chegwidden.

“The Morris Canal is an important part of Wharton’s history, and Canal Day is a great way to celebrate the history of where we have been and to help us know where we are going,” Chegwidden said. “Each year, the Canal Day Association and its President, John Manna, put together a family friendly event that appeals to a variety of people, and try to include new aspects to keep the event fun and fresh. It is a nice way to bring our residents together for an enjoyable day.”

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The Morris Canal was the infrastructure that helped North Jersey develop. Now there's an effort to create a greenway connecting all the segments.
Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com